Walter Johan Heinrich Steffens (26 December 1908 – 23 August 2006) was a German gymnast who won an Olympic gold medal. He was born in

Barnstorf Barnstorf is a municipality in the district of Diepholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km northeast of Diepholz. Barnstorf is home to the football club ''Barnstorfer SV''. Barnstorf is also the seat of the ''Sa ...

, the son of a family of craftsmen. In the 1930s, he was one of the best in the world on the

pommel horse The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and ...

. In the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

he won a gold medal as part of the German team, along with

Alfred Schwarzmann Alfred Schwarzmann (22 March 1912 – 11 March 2000) was a German Olympic gymnast. He won three gold and two bronze medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and another silver medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. During World War II, Schwarzmann served ...

and others. He was a sports instructor at the Hamm Gymnasium and at the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Realschule in

Bergkamen Bergkamen (; Westphalian: ''Biärgkoamen'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated south of the river Lippe, approx. north-east of Dortmund and south-west of Hamm. Bergkamen, a fairly new town in ...

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on GYMmedia.de 1908 births 2006 deaths German male artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts of Germany Gymnasts at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany 20th-century German people 21st-century German people {{Germany-artistic-gymnastics-bio-stub